The Palestinian Authority is preparing to establish a state in the near future. But the Palestinian economy remains strongly tied to Israel, and manufacturers are struggling to recover from the second Palestinian intifada. Read more about Boom times in the West Bank?

BEIRUT, Lebanon (IPS) - Abu Yussif doesn’t want to talk about his work anymore. “It’s not going to help and nothing will change anyway,” he says. The tall, white-haired Palestinian has just returned from work and relaxes in his little garden in the Burj al-Shamali refugee camp near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Read more about Despite law "reform," Palestinians out of work in Lebanon

NAHRAL-BARED, Lebanon (IPS) - Recent inter-factional clashes in Lebanon’s Ein al-Hilwe refugee camp once more illustrated the fragile security situation in some of its Palestinian camps. Lebanese plans to take over security within the camps are rejected by the Palestinians. Ein al-Hilwe and other refugee camps are home to various Palestinian nationalist groups, but also host different Islamist forces that the Lebanese government considers a threat to the state’s security and stability. Read more about Lebanon tightens control over Palestinian refugee camps

More than two years after the end of the fighting, the war-torn Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, located in northern Lebanon, is far from the model the Lebanese government has promised the camp would become. Instead, reconstruction of the camp is delayed, the area is a military zone with restricted access, and the camp’s economy is stalled and residents are largely unemployed. Ray Smith reports for Electronic Lebanon. Read more about Nahr al-Bared's economic recovery hampered by military siege